Conveyer drive



1., A. coLus 2,583,451

CONVEYER DRIVE Filed Dec. 15 9 Patented Jan. 22, 1952 CONVEYER nerve Leslie Alfred Collis, asalea, England, assignor to J. Collis & Sons Limited, London, England, a

British company Application December 15, 1948, Serial No. 65,372 In Great Britain December 19, 1947 4 Claims.

This invention relates to conveyors, more particularly belt, slat and chain conveyors (hereinafter referred to generically as belt conveyors).

Belt conveyors are made up of a number of conveyor units each comprising a frame within which the conveyor belt is mounted in the usual way on, at least, end rollers, the spindles of which run in bearings on the outside of the frame, the bearings at the ends of two consecutive units being coupled together by means of a removable self-contained coupling unit engaging therewith, as disclosed in copending United States application Serial Number 741,490, filed April 15, 1947, and issued August 7, 1951, as Patent No. 2,563,427. Now it will be appreciated that the satisfactory installation and operation of such a conveyor is dependent upon the correct location of the spindles of juxtaposed units in order that they may be coupled together by the self-contained coupling unit. A comparatively high standard of precision manufacture is called for and any substantial misalignment of the units of the conveyor prevents its installation and operation. One object of the present invention is to overcome these possible disadvantages of the construction of conveyor described in the said c-opending patent application while still retaining the advantages of the unit system. A further object of the present invention is to improve the inter-fractional contact between the driving rollers and the conveyor belts in such conveyors.

The belt conveyor according to the present in,- vention is of the kind comprising a plurality of conveyor units each comprising a frame within which the belt is mounted on, at least, end rollers, the juxtaposed ends of the units being carried by stands, slings or like supports and is characterised by the provision on the said stands or like supports of at least one friction driving roller adapted, in conjunction with the end roller of one unit, to nip the belt of the said unit, means being provided for driving said friction roller to cause the same to drive said belt.

Preferably the friction roller is adapted to engage with the belts of the units as they pass over the juxtaposed end rollers in order to transmit the drive from one unit of the conveyor to the next. p I

Conveniently the ends of the conveyor units are carried in cradles on the stands or like supports, said cradles being so constructed as to allow vertical movement of the ends of the conveyor units whereby the Weight of the conveyor units and the weight of the articles being conveyed thereby will be transmitted to the frictional driving roller or rollers to increase the frictional contact.

Alternatively, the cradles on thestands or like supports may be so constructed as to prevent. vertical movement of the ends of the conveyor units once they are in position and means, for example, such as tensioning screws or springs,

may be provided for increasing and maintaining the'pressure between the driving roller or rollers and the conveyor belts.

In order that this invention may be t-hemore clearly understood and readily carried into effect reference may be made to the accompanying I,

drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic end elevation of a stand supporting the juxtaposed ends of two conveyor units and having a single frictional driving roller for transmitting the drive from one conveyor unit to the next,

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 showing a modified form of the present invention,

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 but showing an embodiment in which the ends of the conveyor units are held against vertical movement on the stand.

In the accompanying drawings, for the sake of clarity, no details of the construction of the conveyor units have been shown as these form no essential part of the present invention. One very convenient construction of conveyor is described in the co-pending patent application above referred to and reference may be made to the specificationthereof for details of construction.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings the units of the conveyor indicatedgenerally as A and B are substantially the same as the unpowered unitsdescribed in the co-pending patent application above referred to, with the exception that the ends of the spindles Ill of the end rollers i I of the units need not project beyond the bearings 12. The cradles l3 on the stands, slings or other supports M are so constructed that the bearings 12 on the ends of the units may move up and down somewhat without leaving the cradles. Rot-stably mounted on the top of the stand or the like 14 and between the two parts of the cradle is a friction driving roller I5; The spacing between'the two parts of the cradle l3 and the diameter of the driving roller I5 is such that when the bearings at the ends of the units are placed in the cradle the conveyor belt I6 contacts with the face of the driving roller before the bearings reach the bottom of the cradle. The weight of the conveyor units A and B and the weight of the packages or other articles being conveyed thereby will press the conveyor belt into good frictional contact with the driving roller and so the drive will be transmitted from one unit to the next and so on along the conveyor line. The drive from the power unit is preferably applied to one or more of the frictional driving rollers lb of the complete conveyor. For example, one or more of the frictional driving rollers l5 may bearranged on the top of a driving cabinet and be driven from a power unit in said cabinet, the frictional driving roller on the cabinet being the power output from the cabinet, and the end rollers of the units with which it is in contact the power input roller.

It will be appreciated that with such a method of transmitting the drive from one unit to the next it is no longer a matter of precision engineering to produce the cradles since a slight variation of the spacing will easily be taken up on the driving roller. Furthermore, the conveyor units may be freely removed from and replaced in the cradles as and when desired.

In a modified form of the present invention illustrated in Figure 2, the top of the stand or the like M is provided with three spaced friction rollers IT, IS and I9 freely rotatable on parallel axes, the spacing of the rollers being such that the end rollers H of the units A and B may :be laid between the outer and inner rollers withthe conveyor belt in engagement with two :of :the rollers as shown. :In .this construction, again, the

' weight of the conveyor units and the weight :of a the packages or other articles being conveyed thereby will keep the conveyor belt in good frictional driving contact with the surfaces :of the rollers and the drive will be transmitted from one unit to the next as before. The spacing :of the rollers H, 18 and I9 and their diameters relative to the diameter of the end rollers ll of the conveyor units is preferably such that the outer rollers H and'lt serve as snubbing and nipping rollers to press the conveyor belt into engagement with the end roller and such that z M, 18 and I9.

Ina further embodiment of the present invention, whichjs illustrated in, Figure '3 of the accompanying drawings, the cradles 2t atathe top of the stand or support. 14 instead of opening :out to the top as in the constructions illnstrated in Figures 1 and 2 open out to the sides and the conveyor units Aand B are slipped into thesame end on;

.Pivoted clips 2.! are provided on the cradles, the :S'Ei-id clips being engaged by the bearings as the conveyor units are inserted into the cradles and swung round .sothat once the conveyorunits are in position they are held against lengthwise movement by reason of the arm of the clip it which closes the open end of the cradle. A'latch 21a :mayi'be provided for holding the clip closed. The :open and closed positionsof the clip '21 are shown respectively on the left hands'ide and right hand side of Figure. 3. 'It will be seen that once the conveyor units are in placeQand the clips closed, the end rollersof the conveyor units are held against movement both vertically and horizontally. Afriction driving roller 22 is mounted freely rotatable in the stand or the like between the two cradles as in the embodiments shown in Figures 1 and .2, this roller contacting the conveyorsbelts to transmit the drive from one unit 7 to theanext. In this construction, however, the spindle of the driving roller 22 is vertically ad- Jnstable, say by means of a tension screw 23, so that'ithe pressure between the driving roller 22 and the conveyor belts It may be adjusted to to drive one belt only. .Similarly, each of the juxtaposedends of adjoining conveyor units may be provided with its own individual friction roller which is driven from a suitable power source and serves to drive its own individual unit.

Although the mainobject of the present invention :is to dispense with the use of a selfcontained coupling unit such as that described'in the aboveidentified application between the conveyor units such a coupling unit may, if desired, .be used additionally to the above described means to increase the inter-unit driving caapacity. V

:1. A support for adjoining ends of belt conveyor units, each unit comprising an endroller with theibelt'passing .over said roller, said support haying juxtaposed cradles receiving the end roller of said conveyor .unit,:said support having a fric- 'tion driving roller thereon arranged to frictionally engage the belt of each said conveyor :unit to :drive same, each conveyor unit being movable vertically in .said cradles, whereby the weight of each unit and "the articles carried thereby will .be transmitted to the frictional driving roller to increase the frictional contact between said belts and driving roller.

. to drive :same, each cradle being open to the side of said support so that each conveyor unit may be inserted endwise thereinto, means for supporting said conveyor units against lengthwise movement in said cradles and means for ensuring a driving contact between the friction I driving roller and the belt.

'3. A support according to claim 2, including tension :means for maintaining the frictional driving roller in contact with the belts.

4. A belt conveyor according to claim 3, including r'a pivoted clip which is automatically moved'to close the openings of the cradles as the conveyor units are'inserted into said cradles.

LESLIE ALFRED COLLIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent: V

UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 Date - Number Name r 36,121 Wise Apr. 5, 1862 807,916 Edmund Dec. 19, 1905 1,489,752 "Fraley Apr. 8, 1924 1,769,798 Liggett July 1, 1930 9 2,338,359 Sharp Jan. 4, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 33 3 Qtel Britain 5 v- 20, 1930 

